Thankfulnessblahblahblah

I don't really like Thanksgiving.  I know, half of you just gasped audibly, but it's true.  It is ironic, since the fall is BY FAR my favorite season, but it all boils down to food.  I just admitted that on my blog, like the fat kid I am...  the enjoyment of an entire national holiday revolves around food choices for me.  But you people are family, so I guess it's OK to admit that.  I don't like turkey (although I strongly suspect that my grandmother's turkey is dry and that set me against turkey from the beginning, but I won't place blame). I don't like dressing. I don't like casseroles. I don't like pumpkin. I don't like sweet potatoes.  It's just not my holiday, and I'm OK with that.

Since 90% of my life revolves around food, sometimes I forget that there are good things about Thanksgiving.  You know, like being thankful and stuff.  I also get so tired of the facebook status updates about "I'm thankful for my friends and family and God and the baby Jesus and Alabama football" that I tend to think it's too cheesy to list the things you're thankful for.  I still think it's cheesy, don't get me wrong.  I'm thankful for friendsfamilyblahblahblah.  If you fall into one of those categories and I don't mention you, it's not because I don't care.  It's just 1:30AM and we're pushing bedtime so I'm going to try (for once) to not be so long-winded although I'm already at two long paragraphs so I'm pretty sure that already gone to hell but WHATEVER.

Off the top of my head, in no particular order, I am thankful for:

*Jugey, the Wonder-Chihuahua 

*The 5th Anniversary MYCA Stars Showcase (shameless plug December 20 & 21 at 7:30)

*The MYCA Stars in general, and the people they are becoming.

*The work that I get at the LJCC.

*Facebook chat.

*BIG (shameless plug auditions December 15 & 16...I promise, that's the last one)

*Ellie's laugh.

*The fact that I didn't get married when given the chance.

*Finally realizing that my new BFF Heath is, indeed, my new BFF.

*David chats.

*My recent discovery of Alec Baldwin, and the love affair that has followed.

*Emily taking charge of MYCA multimedia so I don't have a nervous breakdown.

*That David G. still tells people about the time he was mentioned in my blog (here's #2 David, wear it with pride, buddy).

*Jessica's "I Gotta Feeling" dance.

*Porch time with Holly.

*Valerie taking her socks off in the Old Navy.

So many other things, everything really. I've got a pretty cool life.  I know it, even though I don't like turkey.

Gobble Gobble, kids.

A Moment in My Life

Sitting in the co-ed lounge (the virtual epi-center of life in the dorm)...

(J sneezes multiple times.  After saying "Bless you" each time, I decided to follow up.)


Me:  Well, J, you sure are sneezing a lot!  Do you think you're getting sick, or are your allergies just acting up?


J:  I mean, I just ate some chips.

Me: (blank stare)


J: I mean, they had salt on them or something...

And this is my life, friends... Full of smiling, nodding, not understanding and just moving on...

A Visual Tour

The many face of our BFF, the GPS

On the road

The Magic of Pigeon Forge

My new favorite grocery store, since:
a) they have pink shopping bags
b) the name of the store has a subtitle
and
c) that subtitle is "A Celebration of Food"

Self portrait with the pink elephant wearing a bikini

A visit with the King

Chattanooga

Gatlinburg

THE WORLD'S LARGEST ZOLTAR.
I am obviously a little more excited than Emily.

And last, but not least, my fear for the future of my Gatlinburg love.

Tennessee

Things I learned on the Tour of Tennessee Prelim Trip:

1.  Memphis doesn't look confusing on a map, but it sure is in real life.

2.  Nashville looks super confusing on a map, but I didn't have *too* much trouble with it.

3.  A GPS is useful in some situations.  However, I'm over the little GPS woman and her condescending ways.

4. She is, however, much more tolerable in German. Links abbiegen.  That means turn left.  Emily and I are pretty much bilingual now.

5.  My little BFF the GPS has no clue about what's going on in Gatlinburg.  Seriously, guys.  We got into Gatlinburg, wound up into the mountains and back down again (me having a minor panic attack the whole time about driving a freaking 12-passenger van on the tiny, tiny roads) to find that she should have just told us to turn left at the fork.  We would have avoided the entire situation if we would have just turned left (or "link abbigen-ed" for those of you who liked the German setting on the GPS).

6.  Gatlinburg has somehow become one of my favorite towns ever.  I'm not sure how it happened, but I'm strangely OK with it.  I am, however, afraid that my love of Gatlinburg will turn me into one of those people in Gatlinburg.  You know, shiny pantsuits (or really, pantsuits in general...never OK), big bouffant hair...  I don't know, it just feels like a potential slippery slope that I probably need to watch out for.

7.  Julia will attempt to spend at least $300 on souvenirs on this trip.  It's just her kind of stuff...not really useful, but highly amusing.

8.  Originally I would have said that David would die when he got to Graceland.  Now I know that he needs to hang on long enough to see THE WORLD'S LARGEST FREAKIN' ZOLTAR in Gatlinburg. Who knew?

9.  Jessica will indeed die when she visits Graceland.  Kitsch heaven.

10.  Jessica stalks my blog.  That doesn't technically have anything to do with the Tennessee trip, but I learned it while I was there.  Hey J-Dawg!

11.  I feel like Kelsey's going to go over really well in Tennessee.  I mean, low husky voice out of a little bitty kid?  They eat gimmicks like that up in those parts...

12.  The drive from Memphis to Nashville is the worst leg of the trip.  It's just so boring that it's mind-numbing.  I couldn't speak in complete sentences by the time we got to Nashville.  The hotel receptionist man had to fill-in-the-blanks for me.  I just couldn't come up with words...words like "hotel".  Whatever, don't judge me.  IT WAS BORING.

13.  Sister Wives might be my new favorite TV show.  It was a late night Gatlinburg hotel find, completely by accident.  By the first commercial break I was tearing into the bathroom, jumping over things, knocking Emily out of the way just to make sure I could get my contacts out and glasses on before the commercial was over.  It was a little ridiculous, but that show is AMAZING.

14. EVERYTHING IN PIGEON FORGE IS SOOOO BIG. It is simply a beautiful, magical place.

15.  I wish Holly was going on this trip, because I think she'd ADORE these places and I think they'd ADORE her.

16.  I love Emily.  And she loves me.  Right, Emily?  RIGHT EMILY??? YOU LOVE ME, DAMMIT, EMILY!!!! I KNOW YOU DO AND YOU CAN'T HIDE IT ANYMORE.  

excuse me...i mean, um, want to sit with me at lunch, emily?


Well, that's what I learned on the trip (amongst various and sundry other things).

Pictures in the following post, because if I learned nothing else from my last blog excursion it's that I suck at trying to post pictures within text.

Edited to Add:  Here's the picture post... http://amazinglybeautifullife.blogspot.com/2010/10/visual-tour.html

Hello, Dolly and the Tour of Tennessee

Hey guys!

It's going to be a short and fairly uncreative one tonight...but I needed to make sure that I commented on Hello, Dolly that I saw at Shades Valley tonight.  I'm not going to go into the full review, but I needed to mention two things.

Let's get something straight before we start this: I LOVE Hello, Dolly.  I haven't always felt that way, but in the last 5 years or so, I've come to have a certain fondness for it.  I think it has some of the most well-structured numbers in musical theatre (Put On Your Sunday Clothes, Before the Parade..., Hello, Dolly, etc.).  Something I typically don't love, in all honesty, is high school shows.  For me, it's not a matter of how well done a show is...I just have some problems seeing high schoolers do roles that are so wildly age-inappropriate.  It's been the thorn in my flesh picking MYCA shows and trying to stray away from kids playing old people.  Just a little personal issue with me.

That being said, Caroline:  I DIDN'T CARE.  I truly didn't care that you were playing Dolly Levi (who, on a side note, is basically everything I want to be when I'm like 80, but that's neither here nor there).  I didn't care that you were 17 or 18 or whatever you are.  You were flawless...I truly can't think of one thing that I didn't like about your performance or one time that I wanted you to do something different.  And Caroline, I know we don't know each other well, but you can talk to Reid...I absolutely 100% don't just say things like this.  Good job, good job.

And speaking of Reid:  this might be the best I've ever seen you.  I know I told you that tonight, but you need to realize that I'm putting it in writing for all the world (and by all the world, I mean the 12 people that read my blog, but whatever) to see.  You were fabulous.  I'm not going to lie...I was worried about It Only Takes a Moment.  NOT that I didn't think you could pull it off, but it's just not the kind of song you typically pick for yourself, you know.  I LOVED IT.

Try to catch the show if you can, if for no other reason than Caroline and Reid.  Seriously, folks.

So, the reason this entry is short is because Emily and I have lost our minds and are leaving on a roadtrip from one end of Tennessee to the other tomorrow morning. Emily is officially Lead Navigator/GPS Captain/DJ for the trip. Memphis, Nashville, Gatlinburg, Chattanooga in 3 days/2 nights.  Say a prayer.  I'll hopefully have internet access at least tomorrow night and will update. 

I will leave you tonight with a Julia story, since that's really probably the only reason you're reading my blog...for the inevitable Julia stories.  So, Julia had only seen Hello, Dolly once before and didn't remember anything about it.  (It later came out that there is a distinct possibility that she slept through parts of it the other time so was unsure that there was a plot.  Let's be honest--it's happened to all of us.)  Anyway, I decided that on the way to the show we should listen to the Dolly soundtrack so that we would be prepped (also because I was a little worried we would be late and she'd need to know what happens at the beginning).  Now, keep in mind that at dinner we had a long discussion about who Carol Channing is.  She finally figured it out.  So we start listening to the soundtrack, and we get to Dolly's big solo in Sunday Clothes.  We hear this little giggle from the backseat, and Julia, in rare Julia form says:

"Carol Channing sounds like an old man!  Wait!.... or like E.T.!"

So true, Lil J, so true.

Good night!

Spun Out

I used to date this guy who would say, "Bonnie, I don't know how to handle you when you're spun out".  The first time he said it, I just looked at him with a blank stare.  He said, "You know, like in Nascar".  Another blank stare.  (Side note: It's helpful if you read this next part aloud like a good ol' boy, cause that's what he was.) "You know...the car is just going 'round and 'round the track...doing just fine...nothing wrong at all...maybe even winning the race...and then BAAAAAMMM!!!! It just starts spinning and spinning 'round and ain't nothing gonna stop it unless it hits a wall or just runs out of steam.  Sometimes, well... you kinda do that."  


I had a little spun (spin? span? I hate that word) out episode this week.


Let's get one thing straight before we start this:  I'M TIRED.  This job is making me so tired.  I don't even work that hard;  I just have no concept of "night", and then I can't sleep during the day because this god-awful school bells rings every 42 minutes or something.  For example, the other night I was talking to David and I spent a solid 60 seconds straight trying to say "peripherally".  (Please don't ask me why I was trying to say it...sometimes our conversations take strange turns and we're not sure how it happens).  Finally, after patiently listening to me sound like my teeth had fallen out, he said "It's peripherally."  I then tried to repeat it and still couldn't do it.  Let me make sure you understand that: I could not say the word, even call and response style.  I'm not entirely sure if I finished what I was trying to say or if I just gave up and started talking about something else...  So, yeah, I'M TIRED.


Without making this any longer than it needs to be (I mean, it's going to be long...I'll wait for you if you want to go grab a snack), I'll just say I had a little episode and lost it a little this week. Sometimes you just spin out, and you're not going to stop until you hit the wall or run out of steam.

I texted Holly on Friday morning and asked if I could come spend the night.  I know that me sleeping on the couch means the cat sleeps on the couch which means the cat doesn't sleep with Holly (and since Holly and Baby are not exactly BFF, it works out for everyone).   It's still pretty cool that her door is always open for me to come whenever I need to (I guess literally and figuratively since I have a key, but that's not the point and I need to focus because this post is *long*).

I went to El Cazador Friday night, and then went to Rojo with Julia and David (David G., not David S....he's coming up in a minute) to meet Holly. I was already thinking at this point that this is exactly what I needed this weekend...just being with people that I enjoy talking to.  I left Rojo feeling accomplished, and kind of a little better.

I went back to Holly's house and had a phone chat with David S.  I *love* watching the people that my kids become, and I *love* becoming closer to them the older they get.  I also *love* that tonight I told him that I had really good ex gossip and he immediately replied "SPILL".  We're a couple of facebook chats away from being put in a retirement home for old Jewish women so we can just gossip all day, but that's totally not the point here and I need to keep this sucker moving.  On Friday night, we had one of our good long vent sessions about work, school, exes, entitlement, football (just checking to see if you're paying attention...focus please), paper towels, yoga, haircuts...you know, the normal stuff.  We're living parallel lives right now, and I think we both just need sanity most of the time.  Sometimes your sanity is the person you least expect it to be, but it's kind of cool.  I'm also pretty pumped about exchanging all written communication on paper towels from now on.

Shawn (bless his soul, most patient man alive) and I had breakfast Saturday morning.  Shawn has seen me at some of the ugliest times of my life, yet he's hung around for some reason.  Anyway, I was 15 minutes late to the restaurant that I was 3 minutes away from (the restaurant being McDonald's, because S-Dawg and I like to keep it classy).  I slapped my bacon, egg and cheese biscuit on the table and opened with "I know I look terrible. I know I have a gimpy eye. I hope it's just allergies and not pink eye.  I'm so sorry."  He just kind of shrugged, took a sip of his Coke and said "It's fine.  Good to see you."  That, ladies and gentlemen, is a good friend, cause I'm not gonna lie, I looked rough.  Like, Britney Spears (post-Toxic era) rough.  We talked, we laughed, we cried (well, *he* did when I told him I hadn't ever waxed my car much less buffed it, but I think we're going to be able to move past that).

I went to see Holly's show Saturday night with Reid.  I adore Reid.  That's all I really need to say.  Reid listens when people talk, and I appreciate that.  Even though we didn't talk about any of my spinning out issues, it's still nice just to be listened to sometimes. And we enjoyed a straight play and it wasn't a comedy which is a pretty big deal for us.  And we were fortunate enough to sit beside this woman who knew everything about theater in Birmingham (just ask her) so we were able to learn a lot from the experience... :)

After Reid and I finished our post-show parking lot talk, I went to the already-pretty-much-over football party at Lee's.  My late arrival was actually perfect, because Lee and I had the best porch talk (which BTW was my second great porch talk this weekend...I didn't forget about you Holly).  I learned things that I needed to know.  Like, really needed to know.  I shouldn't have doubted myself about a lot of things, because I was right and I deserve something better.

One thing Lee and I talked about is how we both don't show a ton of emotion but experience it so intensely. I'm a pretty intense person, in case you haven't noticed.  I am *not* mushy, sappy, touchy or any of those things.  But I hope that each person mentioned in this post knows that I love people intensely, and you are one of them.  Honestly, if you're taking the time to read this, I probably love you intensely.  This is, like, my sappy quota for the year on my blog, but I'll say it anyway:  This weekend I was loved, and I needed it.

I NEEDED THIS WEEKEND.  I needed each and every one of you.  So, thanks kids.  It's been real.

My Fear of Failure and How It Relates to Blogging

I am enamored by blogs.  I mean, I read blogs *all* the time.  Sometimes I just google search for new blogs.  I read blogs by people I don't even know.  I'm comfortable enough to admit that to you, my blogging audience.

Therein lies the problem.  See, it takes a lot of confidence to blog.  You're just writing your little heart out, assuming that there is *anyone* out there who cares enough about your little life that they'll log on and think "I wonder what Bonnie's doing today?".

I've started blogs.  I had a MYCA Stars blogs that fell apart due to my own lack of blogging.  I had a MySpace blog that actually went fairly well until I decided that MySpace was the root of my relationship problems. Hint: don't EVER, I repeat EVER, omit your girlfriend from your Top 40 friends or whatever it is you have and then make excuses for why you won't change it...but that's neither here nor there. Oh, and another hint: MySpace isn't EVER the root of your relationship problems.  You're just kidding yourself if you think that.

This will be the blog that sticks.  I've learned not to make irrational promises to myself.  If I promise here in writing that I will blog every day, or every other day or whatever, I'll fail.  And when I fail, I decide that it's best to not do it.  I really don't like failure.  This is closely related to why I can't count calories ("Well, I've already had a Whopper and fries for lunch, so I'm screwed.  Pass the whole intact fried chicken, please.").  I will write when I want to, which hopefully will be more often than not.

So why are you going to read this?  I don't know.  My life is bizarre.  I have the most amusing friends.  I'm very emotionally invested in celebrity gossip, so you'll get a good dose of that every now and then.  But I don't know why you'll read this.  And I'm not sure I care.

One thing I've learned in the last year or so is how liberating it is to do things without worrying about someone else all the time.  So, I guess I'm doing this for me.

although i do kind of hope you're out there. :)